VZCZCXYZ0008
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #0110/01 0230949
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 230949Z JAN 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7971
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 7768
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 9028

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000110 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - NIDA EMMONS 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-TAIWAN RELATIONS 
 
 
Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies gave significant 
coverage January 23 to the slide of global stock markets, including 
Taiwan's, after the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest-rate cut failed 
to persuade investors that the U.S. economy will avert a recession. 
News coverage also focused on the March presidential election and 
the UN referendum.  In terms of editorials and commentaries, an 
editorial in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily" discussed KMT 
presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's pledge Tuesday to increase 
Taiwan's military budget and to continue arms procurement from the 
United States if he is elected president in March.  The article 
criticized the Blue camp's "despicable" mentality, because it had 
sought strongly to block the arms procurement budgets proposed by 
the DPP administration.  An op-ed in the pro-independence, 
English-language "Taipei Times," written by Kurt Campbell, chief 
executive officer and cofounder of the Center for a New American 
Security, discussed the common yet different experiences that 
democracies such as the United States and Taiwan share.  The article 
concluded by saying that "as presidential campaigning continues in 
the US and Taiwan, it is important to keep these common political 
experiences in mind while both sides negotiate a complex future 
together."  End summary. 
 
A) "Ma Ying-jeou Reveals Some Information" 
 
The mass-circulation "Apple Daily" [circulation: 500,000] 
editorialized (1/23): 
 
"Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday while attending a luncheon party with 
some retired military leaders that [if elected] he will maintain 
sufficient military readiness and will not call a halt to [Taiwan's] 
arms purchases from the United States.  Ma also said the 
[government's] national defense budget will return to the level 
[that it was] under the KMT's governance, and that he will use the 
island's strong national defense as a foundation for peace across 
the Taiwan Strait. 
 
"We feel reassured after listening to Ma's statements.  Ma used to 
adopt a very ambiguous attitude toward national defense:  He has 
never expressed opposition to the Blue legislators' intense moves to 
block the arms procurement budget in the Legislative Yuan, and there 
was once when he even said flightily that his arms procurement 
policy was to buy fast-drying cement [for Taiwan].  [Ma's attitude] 
made people suspect that he was seeking deliberately to weaken and 
sacrifice [Taiwan's] military in order to pave the way for 
unification [with China].  The question is:  If Ma is really intent 
to maintain a strong military, why did the Blue camp fight so 
vigorously against the arms procurements and the national defense 
budget when the DPP was the ruling party? 
 
"It was fortunate that the United States was there [for Taiwan]; or 
else, should Ma and the Blue camp be held responsible if the People 
Liberation Army attacked Taiwan and our military failed to stand its 
strike?  [The KMT] boycotted national defense [budgets] while its 
rival party ruled, and it seeks to resume Taiwan's military buildup 
when it becomes the ruling party.  No democratic country in the 
world would joke with its national security in this way.  Ma's 
remarks have unconsciously revealed the despicable mentality of the 
Blue camp!" 
 
B) "Common yet Different Democracies" 
 
Kurt Campbell, chief executive officer and cofounder of the Center 
for a New American Security, opined in the pro-independence, 
English-language "Taipei Times" [circulation: 30,000] (1/23): 
 
"... There has been extensive discussion of late of a worrisome 
drift in the US-Taiwan relationship and there are indeed signs of 
discord and clear areas for worry. ...  These instances of 
disagreement and discord take place amid the background of China's 
dramatic rise to great power status. It is undeniable that China now 
plays a much larger role in Washington's calculation on virtually 
every matter of global importance, from North Korean nuclear weapons 
to currency woes to energy anxieties to unrest in Pakistan.  The US 
now needs a constructive partnership with China as never before, 
which has resulted in Taiwan feeling increasingly squeezed by the 
growing weight of China in all matters of international diplomacy 
and commerce. 
 
"Nevertheless, what is often forgotten behind the banal bromides 
that celebrate the vibrancy of Taiwanese democracy is that the US 
and Taiwan share a common experience of democracy, including all its 
many disappointments, difficulties and dilemmas that cannot be 
easily ignored. ...  While US officials often claim to be mystified 
by a Taiwanese move or maneuver on an issue related to identity or 
national character, the truth is that deep down, Americans of 
virtually every stripe understand the motivations behind initiatives 
that at the same time are seen as disruptive or even dangerous. 
 
"What is sometimes forgotten in the occasionally tense to and fro 
 
between Washington and Taipei is that unlike the previous era of 
US-Taiwanese diplomacy, when national authorities could act with 
much less concern about public scrutiny or opposition, the current 
leaders must be much more responsive to public sentiment and 
criticism.  While it is true that, on occasion, Taiwanese leaders 
have taken steps that went against the advice given by Washington, 
these initiatives were usually undertaken with a specific domestic 
group of supporters in mind. In a sense, this is the essence of 
democracy. 
 
"The challenge for this and the next generation of US and Taiwanese 
leaders will be to better appreciate the pressures and interests of 
the other. For the US president, it will mean a simultaneous desire 
to maintain a stable and durable understanding with China while at 
the same time seeking to preserve Taiwan's security and democracy. 
For the Taiwanese president, it will mean negotiating a complex path 
between domestic expectations for greater national identity and 
international standing, while taking account of the obvious desires 
of both Beijing and Washington to avoid actions that could trigger a 
crisis. 
 
"Clearly, Washington and Taipei will have their hands full, but in 
the complex trilateral dialogue and diplomacy between Washington, 
Taipei and Beijing, it is clear that the common experience of 
democracy has created inevitable and undeniable connections between 
Taiwan and the US that cannot and should not be ignored. Indeed, it 
is these values, along with other strategic interests, that keep the 
US so closely engaged in the Western Pacific.  So, as presidential 
campaigning continues in the US and Taiwan, it is important to keep 
these common political experiences in mind while both sides 
negotiate a complex future together." 
 
YOUNG